Rafe Colburn talks about his experience with ordering a Motorola Pebl on eBay:
As I mentioned the other day, I ordered an unlocked Motorola Pebl on eBay on July 21. Yesterday, it arrived. The purchasing process was simple and painless. I bought via "Buy it now" and paid immediately, and two or three days later I got my tracking number via email. It was shipped UPS ground, so it took several days to get here.
The shipping costs were outrageous. The sellers on eBay compete viciously on price and pad their profits with absurd shipping costs. I think they charged me $30 to ship my phone, and shipping costs from my seller were actually on the low end.
In ordering the phone, I had two big worries. The first was that my phone wouldn't arrive at all, and the second was that the phone wouldn't be new. Things turned out fine on those counts. The phone arrived, and it certainly appears to be new. The box had been opened (I assume so that the seller could unlock the phone), but none of the accessory bags were open, and the phone itself had the little protective bits of plastic that protect the various surfaces from scratching still in place.
Bet you didn't know that the seller actually sold it for a loss on the product cost itself. You got a good deal obviously, that is why you bought it. Why do you care whether the seller called it shipping or actual price? He is entitled to make a profit and if other sellers force that low price high ship strategy then he has to play that game too. This will never change until eBay starts showing and sorting by total cost.
Posted by: Anonymous | August 2, 2006 3:50 PM | Permalink to Comment